Happy are those who keep His decrees and seek Him with all their heart.…
Dear Parents and Friends of CCS,
I hope this edition of Parent News finds you well and walking closely with the Lord!
This week I would like to focus on The verses following our theme verses for this year in 2 Corinthians 4.
There are many things going on in our world as I write this: yet another school shooting, this time in Georgia last week, a presidential election season that holds great significance in our country's history, and the everyday wrestling and grappling with consequences of living in a fallen and broken world.
Many of the people that I talk with on a daily basis have the same response when asked to reflect on how they're doing: " It's a lot”...
And of course they're right, it is a lot. For many of us there are many layers of issues that threaten to drag us down and to encourage us to throw in the towel.
But as with all things about the human condition, the Bible addresses this feeling directly, and prescribes the way forward to health, wholeness and flourishing as a Victorious follower of Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 4 we read:
Now we have this treasure in treasuring clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.
We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair, we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.
We always carry the death of Jesus in our body so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body.
Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day.
For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporal but what is unseen is eternal.
(2 Cor. 4: 7-10; 16-18 CSB)
These are such wonderful verses of hope and deep encouragement. Yet we want to be sure to see them in their actual context, in order to rightly understand and apply them to our lives.
Note that back in chapter three of 2 Corinthians Paul is continuing to lay the groundwork for the context within which these precious promises operate.
In summary the apostle Paul tells us that “It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.”
The emphasis is not on us, but on God i.e. not so much what we will do as on what He has already done for us. He is working all things out for our good and His glory.
Note also that in our passage there is no sense that we are removed from the suffering–the strong phrase used in v. 16 is that we are being “destroyed”--the clear implication is that we are upheld in the midst of it.
It may be confusing that just before this in v. 9 Paul said, “We are struck down but not destroyed.” So what’s going on here?
In short, it’s the gospel. Our physical bodies are indeed progressively wasting away, and the world is complex, but our inner person is being progressively renewed by the Spirit of God. He is applying the Cure.
And therefore, in light of this, we are able to rest in the midst of our afflictions on the Rock that is Jesus Christ, by focusing our energy on gazing at and trusting in Him.
May our faith grow through our trials, and may we be found at the end of days standing firm in His strength.
Now may God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from them, receive all of the glory as we continue to move step by step toward becoming a truly extraordinary school, for the greater glory of God.
For CCS and the Kingdom,
Tom